The poem “Overture” is a “statement with a wish,” writes Tarık Günersel. He shares his short poem in 32 languages, including English and the Turkish original, with translations provided by fellow writers and PEN members from around the world. Günersel is PEN Turkey president.

Making a spot-lit entrance on a balcony over Sampsonia Way, Swami reads three poems as she walks down the street, backed by a jazz band featuring Oliver Lake and Dee Alexander and her Trio, at City of Asylum Pittsburgh’s 9th annual Jazz Poetry Concert.

For the last four years, Monterey Street in Pittsburgh’s Mexican War Streets neighborhood has become a stage for “I Don’t Know What I’d Do If I Couldn’t Speak My Mind,” an open day-long poetry event showcasing dozens of writers. We speak to event organizer Adel Fougnies.

In this new edition of The Writer’s Block, Sampsonia Way talks to Sridala Swami, a poet and children’s writer. Swami is a resident of the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program and a performer at the 2013 Jazz Poetry Concert.

Two poems from Bones Will Crow, the first anthology of contemporary Burmese poetry translated into English: “Achilles’ Heel” by Khin Aung Aye and “The Sniper” by Pandora. Both poems are translated by the poet Ko Ko Thett.

In recognition of Banned Books Week, Sampsonia Way presents a selection of exclusive interviews, excerpts, and profiles of the banned writers who have appeared in our pages – from imprisoned Chinese activists to American poets.

Celebrated exiled poet Liao Yiwu performs his poem, “Massacre,” forcing open the memory and aftermath of the Tiananmen Square killings of 1989. He follows this reading with a musical performance with his singing bowls.

A new amendment to the Offenses Code of Russia threatens the LGBT community. We interview Dmitry Kuzmin, an openly gay poet and publisher living in Moscow, about the political, cultural, and literary impacts this law could have.

To mark the American debut of an anthology of contemporary Burmese poetry, Sampsonia Way reprints Khet Mar’s interview with editors James Byrne and poet Ko Ko Thett, in which they discuss the challenges of compiling the anthology, and Burma’s transition out of a culture of censorship.

Polina Martínez Shviétsova’s writing has that fragmentary strength that emanates both from delirium and ingenuity. A fiction writer, poet and freelance journalist, she is the author of two books of poetry, Gotas de Fuego and Tao del Azar, and a short story collection, Hechos con Metallica.

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About Sampsonia Way

Sampsonia Way is an online magazine sponsored by City of Asylum/Pittsburgh that seeks to protect and advocate for writers who may be endangered, to educate the public about threats to writers and literary expression, and to create a community in which endangered writers thrive and literary culture is a valued part of life.